10 Biggest Surprises In WWE's 100 Greatest Matches Book

10. The Inclusion Of Chris Benoit

After the Chris Benoit murder-suicide incident in 2007, WWE understandably moved to distance themselves from the performer, in the wake of criticism that the company could have been held partially responsible for the tragic events.

To that end, Benoit's presence has virtually been expunged from all WWE media since, a persona non grata whose name cannot be mentioned on the promotion's television output.

Though WWE originally edited all Benoit matches out of subsequent DVD releases following his death, both current and historical, it came as something as a surprise to see his ring-work appear in full on the company's on-demand Network service - albeit untagged and unadvertised.

Nevertheless, the decision was seemingly one to ensure the Network could make claims of archival comprehensiveness: a huge selling point of the service. So to see Benoit not only mentioned, but have a match featured in DK's tome is somewhat alarming.

The chosen match is worthy of any top 100 list - Benoit's ladder match against Chris Jericho at Royal Rumble 2001 - but the question arises: if this one, why not others? The phenomenal tag match pitting Benoit and Jericho against Steve Austin and Triple H from May 2001 is even mentioned in the book, but it is omitted from the list.

It feels like case of containing one Benoit bout for the sake of the book's editorial legitimacy, but not enough to draw too much attention to him. It is telling, then, that his his face is not visible in any of the selected images.